The Road is Not Straight
I found myself at breakfast with a clergy friend yesterday, talking about the pace of the Advent and Christmas season. I was describing to her my sermon – which at that point was a jumble of every epiphany thought I’ve ever had dumped into a document on my computer.
I laughed – that seems so “on brand” for this 12th day of Christmas. There has been a lot of attention to various worship services, all of the gatherings, parties, celebrations. As we begin to transition out of the Christmas season through the gateway of Epiphany, things seem blurry and a little out of focus – as if I’ve spent too much time squinting up to this point and my eyes are tired from the effort.
Maybe you feel it too – brain a little foggy from too much sugar, too much schedule disruption, too much Christmas.
I need focus. I need guidance. I need that star in the sky and a reminder that it didn’t all happen on a single night, or even a single week or month. It doesn’t all happen in 12 days – or even in four weeks of Advent plus 12 days of Christmas. The season of Christmas is an annual gateway to a lifetime of seeking Emmanuel – God with us.
And so today, we celebrate Epiphany, the day that follows the 12 days of Christmas, the threshold to “the rest of the year.” On Epiphany we remember the Magi – described by new testament scholar Meda Stamper as “some combination of astrologers, philosophers, magicians, religious advisors, courtiers, intellectuals of prestige and wealth.” Those Magi followed signs in the sky seeking someone they understood to be a new king.
Coming from the East, they traveled to the place that they knew as the hub of power in the region, Jerusalem, presuming that was where a ruler would be born. They found Herod and asked where they might find the “king of the Jews” in order to pay him homage.
(I try to note gospel specific language because it gives us insight about what the gospel writer was focused on…in Matthew’s gospel, the title “king of the Jews” is used only here in the visitation of the Magi and in the description of the crucifixion. And it’s important to note that the story of these visitors only appears in Matthew's gospel. Establishing Jesus‘s identity as a king, a power whom non Jewish intellectuals and mystics would seek out to honor seems important to Matthew.)
Herod was puzzled by this entourage, and alarmed by their stated mission. A new ruler, particularly one born without Herod’s knowledge, would clearly threaten his own power. He couldn’t have that.
And so Herod called on HIS religious advisors and scholars, and they drew together some signs from Hebrew scripture that pointed to Bethlehem as the expected place for the Messiah’s arrival.
Herod, seeing the opportunity for the traveling band of Magi to serve as his scouts, shared this insight with them and asked them to return once they have paid homage to this newborn king, with information about what they had found.
It’s a time-worn story. The Magi followed the star to Bethlehem, where they found the child Jesus, no longer an infant, with his mother Mary. They offered their gifts and then returned by another way because they were warned in dreams not to return to Herod.
And with good reason. In Herod’s rage at being duped, he declared a death sentence on young boys in the region, forcing Joseph to flee with his family, making them political refugees seeking a safe place to live their lives.
It is a story we hear annually in church as the secular New Year arrives – the story of the journey to find someone special, someone that would make a difference, someone that would change the world.
Today we are finally at the end of a series we began on the last Sunday in November – a series entitled “Words from the beginning.” Each week, we’ve been reminded of a simple truth illuminated by scripture that can accompany us on our journey, a truth that reminds us of who we are and who God is.
Those truths have reminded us:
That we (you and me) are a blessing.
That we can’t go alone.
To do the good that is each of ours to do.
That hope is worth the risk.
That love knows each of our names.
And this week, we conclude, reminded that the road is not straight.
The magi set out on a path that was uncertain. They relied on signs and wonders and intuition and dreams. They side-stepped people of power when it seemed to be a threat to their well-being and to the well-being of the one they sought.
The magi are, in the words of Meda Stamper, models of those who are faithfully following signs to the holy, laying treasures and gifts there, then heeding the God of holy dreams, even if it means disobeying the powerful and taking the long way home. (WP, 2025, Meda Stamper)
The road on which they seek the Messiah is not straight.
And neither is the road we follow seeking Jesus.
I guess for me, at this point in the post-holiday fog, I need this reminder – that following Jesus takes time, it doesn’t happen overnight, it is a path with unexpected twists and turns.
And as I look at my life this past year, as I look at my choices and my behaviors and my relationships, the path of following Jesus, the path of loving like Jesus, the path of shining light in dark places has not always been straight. There have been detours. I have been rerouted by life’s GPS. I have walked away from the voices of power to focus on finding Jesus.
How will you seek Jesus in this new year?
Since 2020, we at Faith have marked Epiphany with star words.
Star words are simply words, normal everyday words, that we sit with intentionally in the year to come. We pray with our word. We watch for our word. We expect something through our word.
We seek with that word alongside us.
Star words are a gift – a gift that chooses us rather than a gift that we choose. We don’t pick a star word – we receive a word. Star words give us a focal point, a challenge to sit with a word not of our choosing while we seek for Jesus, and maybe along the way we also seek for how this word we have received has meaning as we seek this year.
With practice and patience, our word may reveal things to us. We may experience or observe new things through our word. Our word might reveal or illuminate or guide us through changes in our path.
As you come to receive communion this morning, as you come seeking to be served at God’s big table, as part of God’s big story, you can take a star word for this year.
And I’d love to hear about your star word – about your first reactions and about how it shows up for you throughout the year. Because I also think star words help me to be your pastor in the year to come as we seek Jesus together.
If you are joining us online, there is an easy way to get your very own star word. You can go to the website wordoftheyear.me (can we get that on a slide?) and have a word randomly generated just for you. OR you can email the office and I will personally send you a star word, randomly chosen!
May these words guide us in the year to come.
May they guide our willingness to navigate in new ways.
May they guide our practice of placing ourselves before God to receive unexpected gifts.
May they be part of our becoming.
May they remind us to seek.
May it be so.
Amen.
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